Account Based Data
Article | August 19, 2022
Over the last couple years, there has been a paradigm shift in the way customers engage with brands. The effect of this shift has also trickled down to the B2B domain. The marketing strategies that drove sales and revenue pre-COVID no longer work. In response, brands are focusing on revolutionizing their marketing strategies by implementing ABM to optimize their processes and drive a higher ROI. Today, 67% of brands leverage account-based marketing.
Account-based marketing (ABM) is the answer to B2B marketers’ struggles as they navigate through the volatile business situation that the pandemic has created. It uses content personalization, focused targeting of high-value accounts, and aligns the marketing strategy with business goals. Through multiple platforms, brand awareness, and optimized processes, ABM gives a higher ROI than any other marketing strategy.
In an interview with Media 7, Mark Emond, Founder and President of Demand Spring, talked about B2B marketing strategies, content, and technology stacks.
“In today’s long B2B buying journey, buyers are in control and they are interacting across multiple channels. The key is to use data and technology to serve up highly targeted content across channels, tuned to the stage of the buyer’s journey a prospect is in, and what their behavior shows they are most apt to engage in.”
The following five emerging trends in account-based marketing have defined ABM in 2021 and may influence the way it evolves in 2022:
Data Integration
Manually researching target account data requires resources and time. To overcome this challenge, businesses use integrated marketing automation and CRM to collect firmographic data (company size and location), technographic data (target company’s technological choices), behavioral and intent data, predictive analytics, and more to optimize their ABM campaigns.
Marketing automation and CRM keep track of this integration so that brands can segment their prospects effectively. With the help of this integration, they can also find accounts similar to their target accounts. Breaking down internal info silos for cross-departmental collaboration promotes using the valuable customer intelligence that departments have. For example, the product management department can share the customization preferences of the clients they work with. This information can help marketers offer clients just what they want. Data integration helps steer ABM campaigns in the right direction.
New Tools
A wide array of tools to simplify and optimize account-based marketing are available on the market. These tools are used for CRM and marketing automation, intent monitoring, campaign execution, orchestration, measuring and reporting the performance of the ABM campaign, and content syndication. These tools are a part of the martech stack that brands use to find key accounts closest to their ideal customer profile (ICP). They facilitate better resource allocation so that personnel can spend more time on personalized interactions with the target accounts.
B2B businesses prefer using marketing automation platforms that they can customize to fit their needs, like sending email marketing (behavior based email), CRM and sales automation, campaign tracking, account-based digital marketing, and analyzing the performance of their ABM campaign, instead of creating a martech stack from scratch. They choose software that can have numerous integrations, products, and services to better adapt to changing circumstances.
Omnichannel Presence
Omnichannel presence is one of the most influential emerging trends in account-based marketing. Brands need to be present and relevant in the lives of their customers. They do this by using different channels for communication and engagement so that their relationship is deep and meaningful, focusing on understanding their problems and offering effective solutions.
A 2019 study by Gartner found that B2B buyers only spent 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers. In the current pandemic situation, in-person events and meetings are replaced by AI-powered chat bots, behavior-based emails, personalized website content, and account-based digital advertising so that customers receive a steady flow of information from businesses across different channels. Marketing automation streamlines this omnichannel communication in ABM. However, it can also complicate things for buyers because of the barrage of information they receive. The Gartner study found that 77% of B2B customers found their purchase journey difficult. Striking a careful balance is necessary while integrating new channels into your strategy.
Customized Content
According to a 2020 ABM Benchmark Survey Report, 42% of respondents are personalising their content to increase account engagement and build long-term relationships. Businesses are creating tailored content for specific industries, roles, titles, challenges, and needs. Their content strategy is based on mapping content to suit a specific buyer persona. They engage the buyer at every stage. As one of the most important emerging trends in account-based marketing, customized content is making a huge difference in lead generation, conversion, and retargeting accounts.
The latest tools allow B2B marketers to personalize content based on target accounts’ interests and preferences. Selecting an appropriate content format, topics of interest, and the response to the use of respected industry influencers are mapped to create hyper-personalized content to better connect with prospects, especially decision-makers. Using marketing automation can modernize this process and deliver extraordinary results in terms of conversions and lead nurturing.
Account Metrics
Assessing the performance of an ABM campaign is of paramount importance if marketers want to meet their ROI expectations. To keep up with the emerging trends in marketing and analyze campaign performance, B2B marketers are focusing on account-centric metrics. Generated revenue and the number of accounts gained and retained are mapped using metric tools. Marketers also focus on KPIs like win rate, pipeline velocity, pipeline contribution, and account engagement score to measure the success of their ABM campaigns. As account-based marketing is evolving, it is crucial to map campaign performance so any weaknesses can be taken care of and the campaign can be optimized for better results.
Connecting siloed data sets across the entire content strategy becomes easy because of these ABM-specific metrics. These metrics gather valuable information that impacts purchase decisions as prospects move through the sales and marketing cycle.
How Snapchat’s Bitmoji Brings Traffic to Its Discover Page
Snapchat’s Bitmoji app was launched in 2016 so that users could create their own personalized cartoon avatars. Every user’s Bitmoji appears on the Discover page, where advertisements and brand content are also displayed. This way, traffic comes to the Discover page for Bitmoji but ends up being exposed to brand content and advertisements. This is a great illustration of how personalized content can drive traffic.
Conclusion
B2B marketers are keeping up with the changing and emerging trends in account-based marketing to get the most out of their campaigns. In 2022, ABM is expected to flourish and optimize the demand generation and conversion process.
FAQ
What is the future of ABM?
ABM is expected to become robust with the use of technology like marketing automation to enhance the customer experience.
Why should businesses use account-based marketing?
Account-based marketing motivates marketing and sales teams to work together, identify target accounts, craft campaigns, and align individual accounts through the pipeline.
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Core ABM
Article | June 20, 2023
The pandemic has changed the marketing world to a great extent. Customers have tremendously adapted to online buying.
The pandemic has forced B2B customers to adapt to new ways of buying and selling. Customers are ready for online meetings and connecting digitally as far as the buying approach is concerned. The only thing that matters to them is that the solutions should answer their hurdles or challenges like personalization and strategizing marketing so
But for the selling process, B2B marketing strategies needed creativity. Companies had to put their heads together to convince a buyer through conversations on digital platforms. It was not easy. But B2B companies have taken up the challenge and managed to come out with flying colors.
Let us look at the changed scenario of B2B marketing.
The Changed Scenario for B2B Marketing
In 2020, when the world came to a standstill, people expected it was just a break, and they might return to their lives in no time. But this myth was busted when people had to adopt the new normal instead of going back to normal.
Every industry faced challenges, including the B2B industry. Imagine the industry, which had the habit of meeting decision-makers and convincing them with presentations, had to do all the work digitally.
But they found solutions after some months of struggles, and the businesses were back on track. Of course, there were difficulties on the way, but they answered every obstacle with time.
B2B marketing best ideas include account-based marketing, conversational ABM, personalized campaigns, correct use of data, and more. These paved a path for successful B2B marketing amidst the pandemic.
Thus, learning from them, we have curated a list of tips for successful B2B marketing.
Tips for Successful B2B Marketing
These best ways to market B2B are listed after diving deep into the struggles of B2B marketing. The experts of this area have experienced hurdles and implemented these solutions.
Have a Buyer-centric Approach
In an interview with Media7, Dmitry Chervonyi, Chief Marketing Officer at Belkins, stated that,
“If you don't solve your customers' problems and make their lives better, then it is a waste of time to do this kind of business.”
So, you understand how essential the customer is! These days it is more about the customer than about sales. Therefore, you must have a 360-degree alignment with the customer’s needs and preferences. Through this, you have better chances of conversion.
Take Risks
The market is very unpredictable post the pandemic. The companies that you thought may not require your service can be the ones changing the game. So, do not refrain from taking risks. First, of course, calculate the risks, but they take them.
For example, before the pandemic, some businesses may have invested massive resources in digital marketing. As a result, they might not see the results immediately. But meanwhile, the pandemic erupted, and Boom! They were the only ones who survived in the market.
Thus, the results of a calculated risk may be harmful or positive, but you either earn profits or learn something valuable from it!
Implement ABM
If you are a B2B marketer and have not implemented ABM in your marketing strategy, you need to do it immediately. Account-based marketing has the best conversion rate compared to the traditional methods.
And this is the best strategy to be implemented post the pandemic. The reason is that companies have various challenges and need immediate solutions. Thus, if you filter the best clients, address their struggles, and target them, they will waste no time in approaching your sales team.
But this is possible only when you design the best ABM strategy. Click here to know more about account-based marketing for B2B.
Have an Agile Approach
Clive Armitage, CEO at Agent3, believes that,
“We have to act as the eyes and ears of marketing innovation for our clients; they trust us to help them navigate the pace of change in the way that the process of marketing is evolving.”
It means that Agent3 changes its strategies and services as per the clients and market demands. They also keep the clients in the loop of the changes and innovations happening in the market.
Thus, have an agile approach. Be ready to change your marketing growth strategies and plans according to the conditions around you.
Be Future Ready
The example set by the rental car company Hertz shows how future-ready they are with their latest investment. Despite their business being affected by the pandemic, it resurfaced itself through trusted investors. But instead of following the age-old techniques of rental cars, they ordered 100,000 Teslas to electrify its fleet.
Not only did Tesla’s shares hit sky-high but, Hertz was all over the news. This critical investment defines how Hertz is making itself future-ready as it knows the future is electric cars.
This example explains how important it is to invest for the future, considering the changing customer demands. Hence, implementing the latest technologies like AI and machine learning in marketing campaigns can make you future-ready. Plus they also create a great impression in the mind of the customers.
And We Conclude
Remember, marketing is all about understanding your customers and delivering what they want. Once you know your customers, you have hit the bull’s eye. So hit targets by taking risks, investing in technology, and developing a personalized approach.
And most importantly, adapt to the changing world to thrive in it!
Frequently Asked Questions
How to identify a successful B2B marketing plan?
Analyze your marketing performance
Perform competitor analysis
Define your marketing goals
Identify your marketing budget
Implement the latest B2B marketing trends
How successful is ABM strategy in B2B marketing?
Account-based marketing guarantees a better conversion than traditional marketing methods. Plus, it is one of the most trending strategies in B2B marketing. As a result, companies have saved many resources and fulfilled their sales targets by incorporating account-based marketing.
Does ABM guarantee a 100% success rate?
Well, ABM guarantees a success rate that may be not 100% but surely more than any other marketing strategy. The success of account-based marketing depends on the personalized content and the tailored approach you provide to your clients.
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Buyer Intent Data
Article | September 11, 2023
Do you target your high-value clients using account-based marketing? Have your sales and marketing teams gathered all the data required to set up a marketing campaign for your valuable clients? Well, if you have hit the start button, then you should be well-versed with conversational marketing strategies, too.
What Is Conversational Marketing?
Conversational marketing is a one-to-one conversation with the client or customer to provide them with an enhanced shopping experience. This conversation can include chatbots, live chats, filling up contact forms, or feedbacks.
Conversational marketing helps in generating leads, revenue, and personal connection with the customers. This approach also helps in understanding the pain points of the customer at a personal level. As a result, this personalized approach attracts the customer, enhances their buying journey, and makes them feel connected to the brand.
What Does Conversational ABM Mean?
Conversational marketing, when incorporated in ABM, is known as conversational ABM. And it is an essential step in enhancing the client’s journey through conversational ABM.
Conversational ABM is an essential aspect of account-based marketing. When targeted clients click on the ad campaigns or visit your website, they must receive a tailored treatment.
Let us explain this with a basic shopping example.
Assume that you are an owner of a luxury brand that sells cars. Your brand needs a public figure and, you have been targeting a couple of high-value clients for the same. You have been using ABM strategies to get to them. Finally, one day, one of them walks into your store. So what do you do?
Of course, you have the best salesperson attend to them. This salesperson knows everything about the client and addresses their pain points through a lucid and formal conversation. As a result, the client feels that you have made efforts to know them and address their challenges. They understand that for you; they are more than just a customer.
This personalized conversation constructed with the help of research data is known as conversational ABM.
Importance of Conversational Marketing in ABM
“Conversational marketing is about leveraging the power of real-time conversations and two-way dialogue to engage customers and seamlessly move them through your marketing and sales funnels. This could be online chats, social media channels, or live brand experiences, but the end goal is the same — engaging with customers one-on-one to stand out from the competition and humanize your brand.”- Nicole Bojic, SVP of strategy at InVision Communications:
Conversational marketing is of extreme importance. Conversational ABM helps you stand out in your client’s vision. Once the client visits your website or clicks on the link curated for him, your team needs to be super ready to provide them a personalized experience.
This approach of conversational marketing will help to:
Connect the client to the brand
Build rapport with the client
Make the client feel that you are well-versed with their pain points and challenges.
Build a personal relationship with the targeted businesses
Ensure conversion and client retention
How to Strengthen ABM Using Conversational Marketing
Conversational ABM is developed in the most personalized and formal way.
Conversational marketing in ABM is carried out through chats, calls, or in-person meetings. It is always better for a real person to have a conversation with the client in real-time instead of using chatbots. Align strategies so that your team instantly connects to the targeted client as soon as they visit your website or click on the relevant link.
They should have a personalized approach right from the beginning.
The best way to keep the clients connected is by involving them in a formal conversation while addressing their challenges and pain points. The live chat option has limitations, so your team should know when to switch from chats to audio or video calls. But, again, do this while keeping in mind the convenience and comfortability of the client.
Whatever the mode of communication is, you need to consider the following points while initiating conversation ABM.
Direct your sales team instantly to start the conversation as soon as the target account lands on your website. It may include enabling push notifications through emails, messages, or any other conversational marketing solutions.
Ensure that the welcome messages and conversations are streamlined with the research and ad campaigns. The client should feel connected, in sync, and cohesive.
Greet your target accounts with human-led chats over automated chats. This step amplifies a seamless customer experience.
Sculpt the conversation totally about the buyer’s account. They should feel that you have made great efforts to know them and address their challenges.
Your content needs to be customized to address their specific needs.
Know when to upgrade from a chat conversion to an audio/video call to take things forward.
Go beyond basic conversations and show how much the client matters to you.
Do everything to provide them with a premium and over-the-top sales experience.
And the Conversation Leads to Conversion.
Based on a survey by DemandGen Report, 95% of target accounts said they would choose the solution provider who helps them navigate through each step of the conversion process.
Conversational ABM is a critical step for a successful ABM. Thus, ensure you prepare your sales and marketing team for the best conversational approaches. This will eventually lead to successful engagement and conversion of the targeted clients.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is conversational marketing?
Conversational marketing is encouraging conversations that are client-centric. These one-to-one conversations are designed to provide a personalized and premium customer experience. The conservations are aligned with the research and specifically address the pain points of the customer.
What is ABM strategy?
Account-based marketing is a marketing strategy that concentrates on creating strategies and targeting high-value clients. This client list for ABM is curated while keeping in mind that these are the most likely to convert. The strategy consists of gathering maximum data about the client and creating tailored ad campaigns or pitches for them.
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ABM Accounts
Article | July 23, 2021
ROI matters in B2B business. Account-based marketing has reached a significant tipping point and has become an investment that could pay off for the years to come. It is because B2B marketers are achieving substantial results with the help of ABM, and those who haven't started using it yet are planning to implement it.
And why not? This type of marketing harnesses the best marketing tactics for creating highly relevant campaigns that positively impact a B2B businesses’ bottom line. Forrester describes ABM as "a strategy by which marketing and sales cooperatively work to pursue, establish, and grow in long-term and engage in revenue-generating relationships with specific accounts." As a result, its study says that 71 percent of companies that invest in ABM report that their return on investment is fairly or significantly higher than traditional marketing programs it used before.
Now that the importance of account-based marketing has come into the picture while detailing the reasons why ABM gives a better ROI. It is decisive to know why you should get interested in ABM.
Importance of Account-Based Marketing
ABM is vital to your marketing strategy because it helps you create a more targeted and effective campaign.
In other words, it has the potential to fuel growth for years into your B2B business future and develop stronger relationships with customers who matter most in support of your business objectives.
Understand that ABM is more than social media advertising that incorporates traditional marketing methods such as direct mail and email marketing.
Similarly, marketing automation is yet another crucial part of ABM. When you automate your ABM, you get qualified leads and prospecting activities. This gives you a competitive advantage over other companies in your industry so that you can get an insight into what your competitors are up to. But, most importantly, you get a higher chance of getting the right prospect to what you offer.
In connection to this, here comes an important step to include—creating relevant content. It is because when it comes to ABM, relevance is all that matters. Your offers need to be tailored for qualified prospects, and not all noise will cut through the clutter anymore.
A recent Forrester Consulting study by LiveRamp surveyed 312 B2B marketers across six industries found that nearly all marketers said their businesses are committed to using ABM as a revenue-driving strategy in the present time. Similarly, most marketers also reported a high level of confidence by using a wide range of ABM capabilities.
Let’s deep dive into five reasons why ABM offers a better return on investment than more traditional methods.
Efficient Operations for Sales and Marketing
ABM users highlight its role in bringing sales and marketing closer to collaborate on developing and executing sales and marketing strategies. As per Bizible’s research, marketers are now 40 percent more likely to align their strategy with sales because of ABM's strategy.
By putting the teams together, sales and marketing can coordinate their outreach and ensure client engagement is conducted high-value and meaningful.
Meanwhile, marketers benefit from a streamlined approach that lets them discard a far-and-wide marketing strategy favoring carefully chosen prospects. With having a focus on selected targets rather than scattershot marketing campaigns, marketers can now focus on harmonizing and automating their digital marketing efforts, which makes them ready to work on next-generation demand-gen platforms with the help of AI and machine learning. In this way, they can orchestrate their campaigns and exponentially grow the ROI of your business. This ensures the right account prospects and results in the most significant ROI potential.
This automated marketing approach reduces the marketing team workload and saves staff precious time while preserving huge marketing dollars. Thus, more efficient spending and a higher threshold for returns will bring a significant ROI to your business.
Master in Multichannel
Amid the rush to digital marketing, which is gaining prominence in the current time, the most effective ABM strategy and programs create a balance of online and offline approaches, fully integrated across sales and marketing. In addition, account-based marketing automation saves marketers from making unnecessary costs, so they spend less on marketing while still getting results.
Forrester's survey says that the key strengths of dedicated measurement solutions by ABM are the improved ability to track engagement and optimize across online and offline channels. This is so marketers can manage the frequency of engagement as well as precisely determine attribution.
A Personalized Approach
Personalization makes ABM so appealing to clients. ABM has a way of turning attention to detail, so it immediately gets a client’s interest. To be true, the marketing and sales teams have to be competent in conducting in-depth research of potential leads. When it’s done accurately, they will target clients based on their likelihood of converting, then develop personalized offers to get good results. For this, you have to keep a separate ROI of account-based marketing at the same level.
When you have such a narrow focus, you get a chance to communicate with the specific prospect and craft a better offer for them. By providing a personalized approach, you have a high chance to see increased ROI of your business.
Manage, Monitor Data Governance and Privacy
Maintaining the privacy of prospect data is crucial for B2B organizations. In today’s time, where the lines between B2B and B2C marketing are increasingly blurred, applying strict governance policies over the use of prospect data is a must. In addition, people expect brands to respect privacy preferences and actively work to build trust.
Every dollar counts in a crisis. But almost one-third of marketing professionals are still planning to increase their investments towards ABM in the next calendar year. Moreover, decision-makers expect those investments in digital to yield substantial business benefits; the pressure to deliver is higher than ever. So, to have an actual ROI of account-based marketing is equally crucial to enjoying a significant revenue of your business.
ABM Encourages to Measure Performance
By integrating ABM strategy and account-based marketing automation, marketers can identify and reinforce the most effective strategies to measure the performance of marketing efforts that exclusively depends on ROI generation. It’s easy to measure acumens when you have highly focused accounts and well-sorted campaigns. You need to perceive what content approach gains traction and what attempts fail to succeed.
In a nutshell, when the businesses are identified, an account-based approach will offer precisely what a business needs; this will help your business gain maximum ROI.
So, plan now for an account-centric marketing future. Your team can accelerate deliver strong business ROI out of account-based marketing automation programs by considering a cross-channel B2B business solution that can help fill capability gaps and evidently prove the worth of your ABM marketing efforts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How effective is ABM for generating ROI?
When it comes to increasing the ROI of business, ABM helps drastically. It aligns sales and marketing teams to work together, which generates a positive ROI and increases revenue. In this, 60% of companies that use ABM experienced a revenue increase of at least 10% within a year, while one out of five companies experienced a 30% and more rise in revenue.
What is a good ROI percentage for ABM?
A good ROI percentage for ABM stands at 5:1, which is considered the middle of the curve. A ratio over 5:1 is considered robust for most businesses, whereas a 10:1 ratio is exceptional.
What are the top 3 reasons to choose ABM marketing?
The top three reasons are:
To reach the right prospect that matters according to business
To gain a competitive advantage
ABM shortens long sales cycles
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